What is the difference between mineral and organic fertilizers?
Mineral fertilizers are manufactured to provide the correct balance of easily digested plant nutrients. Organic fertilizers come from materials such as crop residues, compost, sewage sludge and livestock manure. Mineral and organic fertilizers complement each other and a combination of both is often the most beneficial for crop and soil. Organic fertilizers boost the efficiency of mineral fertilizer. They help build soil structure and generate the bacteria and fungi that help crops extract nutrients from the soil. However, they do not provide a balanced or ample enough supply of nutrients to sustain global agricultural production. For example, using enough manure to provide adequate amounts of nitrogen would mean adding up to five times more potassium and phosphorus than a crop needs. Animal manures and plant material contain from 1 percent to 4 percent nitrogen, while fertilizers contain from 40 to 46 percent nitrogen on a dry weight basis. Q: What happens to crop nutrients when they
